French police to search missing NBA star's yacht

September 18 2002

French police accompanied by FBI agents were to search the luxury yacht yesterday of a former American basketball star who has been missing for more than two months and may have been a victim in a triple homicide.

Bison Dele, 33, formerly known as Brian Williams, his American girlfriend, Serena Karlan, 30, and Frenchman Bertrand Saldo, 32, a professional sailing boat captain, have been missing since July 8.

The US Federal Bureau of Intelligence has issued an arrest warrant for Dele's older brother Kevin Williams, 35, also known as Miles Daford, in connection with their mysterious disappearance.

French gendarmes were to conduct a full search of Dele's 17 metre catamaran, the Hakuna Matata, yesterday along with two observers from the FBI, which sent a team of agents to Papeete over the weekend.

Dele, a 2.1 metre forward played for the Orlando Magic, the Denver Nuggets, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons during his NBA career.");document.write("

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He won an NBA championship with Michael Jordan's Bulls in 1997.

Dele, whose father Tony was an original member of the 1950s group The Platters, changed his name in 1998 to honour his American Indian ancestry.

Dele shocked the NBA in 1999 when, citing a loss of passion for the game, he announced his retirement, walking away from more than $US30 million ($A55 million) left on a five-year contract with the Pistons.

After retiring, he moved to Lebanon, where he owned a water purification plant for a year, and then to Australia.

Dele was to have sailed the Hakuna Matata to Hawaii from French Polynesia in July with Karlan, his girlfriend of seven months, Saldo, who is a nephew of former French defence minister Charles Hernu, and his older brother, Kevin.

But the catamaran, repainted and renamed, was found abandoned last week in Phaeton Bay, east of Papeete, the territory's capital.

The FBI issued an arrest warrant for Kevin Williams last week after he allegedly tried to purchase $US152,000 ($A278,000) worth of gold bullion in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 5 using the passport of his younger brother.

Dabord had been briefly taken into custody by suspicious Phoenix police but was released and is believed to have since fled to Mexico.

French public prosecutor Michel Marotte told AFP that the "police did not apparently feel it was necessary to jail" Kevin Williams at the time, but "with what has come to light since then one can fear the worst."

The independent Pacnews agency quoted Marotte as saying there was "reason to be pessimistic about the fate of the missing people" and that it had become "a possible triple murder case."

In the last known contact with their families, Serena Karlan telephoned her parents in the United States on July 8.

The Hakuna Matata left for Honolulu, Hawaii, sometime between July 8 and 10 but the catamaran returned to French Polynesia a week later with only Kevin Williams on board.

The name of the boat had been removed and it was registered by Kevin Williams with port authorities under the name of Aria Bella.

Prosecutors said later that a search of the boat had not turned up any bodies or incriminating evidence.